Physiological sensors have long been known and widely used for medical and health related applications. Various physiological sensors embedded in textile or garments, sometimes called portable or wearable sensors, have been described before in publications and patents (Portable Blood Pressure, U.S. Pat. No. 4,889,132, Filing date: Sep. 26, 1986 Issue date: Dec. 26, 1989; Portable device for sensing cardiac function, U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,690, Filing date: Apr. 25, 1988, Issue date: May 29, 1990). The term “wearable sensors” is now commonly used to describe a variety of body-worn sensors to monitor activity, environmental data, body signals, biometrics, health related signals, and other types of data.
Electrocardiogram (ECG) electrodes made of conductive textile, conductive polymer, metal and other materials used in wearable sensors have been described in patents such as (Textile-based electrode, U.S. Pat. No. 7,970,451, Filing date: Dec. 31, 2008, Issue date: Jun. 28, 2011).
Textile-based Respiratory Inductive Plethysmography sensors have been described in patents such as (Method and apparatus for monitoring respiration, U.S. Pat. No. 4,308,872 Issue date: Jan. 5, 1982).
Multi-parameter wearable connected personal monitoring systems (Zephyr Technology' BioHarness, Qinetiq's Traintrak, Weartech's GOW, Nuubo's nECG) are already available on the market.
However, the single or multi-parameter systems known in the industry use clip buttons made of conductive material for connecting the textile sensors to an electronic module. These clip buttons limit the number and types of interconnections available between the electronic module and the textile sensors.
Connectivity is a domain with many technological challenges to the manufacturer of e-textile solutions, intelligent garments, wearable sensors, and multi-parameter wearable connected personal monitoring systems. There is thus a need for improved connectivity solutions, and for garments equipped with such connectivity solutions.